Warrandyte is dry

In the wetter years since 2009, I had to get the grass cut before Christmas because the alpacas couldn’t keep up. This year we’ve had to start supplementary feeding early because the alpacas have mowed the grass down already.

In this first photo, I’m standing in my paddock, taking a photo of my neighbours’ paddocks. The three of us share the four alpacas.

This next photo shows a small, fenced off area [roughly 2 metres by 3] that used to be one of the alpacas’ favourite poop spots. Once they start using a spot they become very attached to it, and refuse to stop pooping there.

Unfortunately, this particular spot is really close to both the pool and the house, and the odd, gentle breeze can bring tears to your eyes. I’ve been trying to get rid of this spot for years, without much success. My latest plan has been to dig up the poop [and put it on the compost], dig up the soil underneath [to get rid of their scent], replace it with mushroom compost and plant something they love to eat [Lucerne]. Fingers crossed it works this time.

One area where I have had some success is with my ornamental ponds. One is less than a metre long, and the other is about 2.5 metres long, so both are quite small but the local frogs love them!

This next photo is of the larger pond and shows clusters of strange, white bubbles in amongst the water lilies and duck weed. Those, my friends, are frog eggs!

What’s that you say? You can’t see them? Hold on…

Tah duh!

I don’t really know why the frogs like my pond so much, but I’m thrilled that they do. It contains water cress and a host of other water plants so maybe I got the mix right without knowing it.

I hope my Aussie friends have had a great weekend, and I hope my international friends are still enjoying theirs. 🙂

cheers

Meeks

p.s. Apologies if this post looks a bit strange. WordPress have made changes, again, and my blog won’t work at all in Opera. It works in IE, except for the preview function, so I won’t know what it looks like until I publish. I’m resisting the urge the rant. 😦

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About acflory

I am the kind of person who always has to know why things are the way they are so my interests range from genetics and biology to politics and what makes people tick.
For fun I play online mmorpgs, read, listen to a music, dance when I get the chance and landscape my rather large block.
Work is writing. When a story I am working on is going well I'm on cloud nine. On bad days I go out and dig big holes...
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What a great idea sharing alpacas – we just share a cat! Even dry Warrandyte still looks lovely, and those frogs have four star accommodation. Wonderful that you can grow cress, we -even the G.O.- love the stuff. A pond is definitely on our one-day list, we already have frogs! TA has been the dry also, last week’s rain is the first time the tanks gave been full since very early in the year.

The sharing thing began because one of my neighbours had a horse and asked if he could agist Rusty on our paddocks. When Rusty went to the farm we were so used to having a 4-legged lawn mower that we all chipped in for the alpacas.

I also have a fav … spot… ANYWAY! Instead of just “fixing” the spot, why not move the soiled soil to some place else? Instead of just letting them pick a new spot. Sort of guide them to a new place by their own scent.

They already have other spots George. 😦 Honestly don’t know what the psychology of it is. I think though that its and evolutionary thing because they won’t eat the grass growing around their poop spots so they end up becoming like fertilized crop rotation areas!

Happy holidays to you too Yvonne! And yes, the alpacas have a number of clearly defined poop spots so walking outside is fairly safe. Unfortunately some of the locations they’ve chosen aren’t the best from out point of view. 😀

Lovely pics! It’s so nice to see a bit of where you live, Meeks. It’s grot-bags seven-hours-of-daylight here, so it’s really nice to see stuff growing. And, my, those alpacas look good enough to eat! 🙂